


The Good Deed

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22055023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: ‘I’ve got my pride,’ he protested.‘No, you don’t,’ she said.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	The Good Deed

**Author's Note:**

> CrazyMaryT

Ben ducked down behind the kitchen island cabinet and waited for Joyce to run out of ammunition. After a few minutes, he sat down. A Clive Cussler novel that he’d been meaning to reread skimmed his head and crashed into an ornament behind him. Uh-oh.

Joyce _howled_ and ran around the cabinet to pick up the smashed figurine. ‘Look what you did!’

‘I didn’t do that! You did that!’

‘You made me!’ she hissed.

Ben stood up cautiously. ‘I’ll buy you another one.’

‘How?’ She poked him in the chest. ‘You lost your job! Again!’

Ben put his hands on his hips. ‘I’ll get another job.’

‘I am tired of this,’ Joyce said quietly. ‘When you don’t work you sit in your cave and sulk and drink and you don’t talk to me or the kids.’

Ben rubbed his face. ‘I’ll get another job,’ he said softly.

‘How?’ she asked. ‘You got fired from Uber, from Starbucks, from Apple.’

‘It’s just different to what I’m used to,’ he said. ‘They all get offended so easily I can barely say two words before they start talking about HR. Selina Meyer would have the lot of them in tears before lunch time. Roger Furlong would have them using smelling salts.’

Joyce folded her arms. ‘Then work for them.’

Ben shook his head. ‘Meyer is a pathetic has-been running around pretending that she’s still relevant and Furlong never forgave me for sleeping with his first wife.’

Joyce rolled her eyes. ‘Then another politician. I don’t care. Find something.’

‘I’ve got my pride,’ he protested.

‘No, you don’t,’ she said. ‘Call Kent.’

‘I don’t,’ he said. ‘But don’t make me call Kent. Do you know how much I ragged on him for going to work for Jonah?’

Joyce shook her head. ‘I told you not to do that.’

‘God damn it.’

***

‘Why couldn’t we meet in a bar?’ Ben grumbled.

‘This is the only time that I had,’ Kent murmured.

Ben opened his eyes and looked down at the floor. He had never had a massage before. On the basis of this, he wouldn’t be having one again.

‘I could’ve gone my whole live not seeing you wearing nothing but a towel,’ Ben grumbled.

‘It’s no great pleasure for me to see you in a towel either,’ Kent muttered.

Ben grunted as the masseuse hit a knot in his back. ‘Joyce is insisting I go back to politics.’

‘I heard about Uber,’ Kent said. ‘Although the details vary. I assume that you did not, in fact, parade around in yellow face.’

‘What? No! That’s what people are saying?’

‘Sir lie still please!’ the masseuse protested.

Ben muttered to himself as he did. ‘I just said a couple things. These people need thicker skins.’

Kent snorted. ‘Translation: you are unable to transition to working with normal people.’

‘Normal? I was at Uber,’ Ben said. ‘And you’re not exactly making it big in business.’

‘I’ve worked in business,’ Kent said. ‘I have worked in a number of spheres. You’re the one evidently incapable of existing outside of politics.’

‘They why aren’t you doing that now?’

‘Boredom.’

Ben could believe it. Kent had always required much more intellectual stimulation than he did. ‘Working for Jonah isn’t boring you?’

Kent’s sigh was very heavy. ‘It will pass,’ he said. ‘Onwards and upwards.’

‘I thought maybe you were maybe hanging around hoping to see Sue Wilson,’ Ben suggested.

He knew, from the change in timbre, that Kent had raised his head. ‘What possible reason would she have to be anywhere near _Jonah_?’

‘I didn’t mean that. Just that as long as you’re working in the Capitol you might see her around. Restaurants, gyms, parties. That kind of thing.’

Kent was quiet for a few seconds. When he spoke again, he had once again lowered his head. ‘Sue is married,’ he said. ‘And I am neither desperate nor a stalker.’

Ben winced at the tone. ‘If you were gonna stalk her you know enough people in the intelligence services that you could do it from home.’

‘Hilarious.’

Ben groaned. ‘Aww come on, you’re getting bent out of shape over nothing.’ He sat up at the masseuse’s gesture. ‘You need to get back out there.’

‘Why are we talking about this?’ Kent asked. ‘I thought you were here to pretend I begged you to come work for Jonah.’

Ben scratched his forehead. ‘Yeah. Mostly.’

‘He’s still Jonah,’ Kent warned. ‘He hasn’t changed in any particular.’

Ben stood up. ‘Joyce says I haven’t either and that’s the problem.’

Kent shrugged. ‘So, come work for him. We’ll share a desk. You’ll make hurtful comments about my being a robot and I’ll put calls through from your ex-wives when you don’t want to talk to them.’

‘I knew that you were doing that on purpose!’

Kent frowned. ‘How would I accidentally put calls through?’

‘You know what I mean,’ Ben said. He adjusted the towel. ‘Now can we get a drink?’

Kent sighed. ‘How has your liver not exploded?’

‘My heart keeps stealing all the action.’

***

Ben sank back in his seat and gratefully took a gulp of his whiskey. ‘Joyce will want to invite you around.’

Kent pulled a face. ‘We’re going to be practically sat on top of each other,’ he said. ‘I doubt that we’ll want to socialise together.’

Ben took another sip. ‘You think that will stop Joyce?’ he asked. ‘She’s always bugging me with what you’re up, if you’re dating, all that stuff.’

‘Then I am certainly not coming to dinner,’ Kent said tartly.

Ben waved his hand. ‘I’m gonna tell her that you’re a serial killer.’

Kent looked at him. ‘I hope that this isn’t going to be a terrible pun.’

‘It’s not a lead in to a joke,’ Ben grumbled. ‘I just figure that’ll stop her trying to fix you up with her friends.’

Kent shuddered. ‘I suppose that being arrested is a small price to avoid that.’

Ben ran his fingers through his hair. ‘She’s got a soft spot for you.’

‘Why?’

‘Damn if I know,’ Ben said. ‘She can’t believe you aren’t married with kids by the bucket.’

‘It’s a little late for me to start now,’ Kent said dryly.

‘My youngest are only five and three,’ Ben said. ‘And I’m older than you.’

Kent sipped his soda. ‘Only by eight months, and you are hardly the norm.’

‘Who wants to be normal?’ Ben frowned as he answered his cell. ‘Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Fine. Yeah. No. No. N- okay. Fine. Bye.’

‘Joyce?’ Kent asked.

‘How did you know?’

Kent waved a hand. ‘There’s a particular tone.’

Ben drained his glass. ‘You want another?’

‘No.’ He stood up. ‘I’ll inform Jonah that you will be joining us.’

Ben sighed. ‘Joyce wants you to come to dinner. She’s got this nurse friend she’d like you to meet.’

Kent shook his head. ‘Absolutely no. I’ve done my good deed for the day.’

‘See ya Monday.’

The End


End file.
